Sammy Price In Concert

 

New Shoes Blues

My Lonesome Heart

Sammy Price In Concert

Featuring Sam Price And His All-Stars

Jazztone Society Classic

Jazztone J-1236

1956

From the back cover: About Sammy Price

Sam Price, to those who know, is just about the greatest blues pianist extant. Hailing from Honeygrove, Texas, where he was born in 1908, Sam learned his way around the black and whites by watching and following the keys of the player piano. He was working professionally in his late teens and made his first records in Dallas for Brunswick in 1928 – billed as Sam Price and his Four Quarters. Soon afterwards, he toured on the famous T.O.B.A. southern vaudeville circuit, going through Texas, Louisiana, Florida and as far north as Pittsburgh, where, in the unlamented tradition of old-time barnstorming, he was stranded.

In 1929 Sam found himself caught up in the exciting and musically fertile field of free-style jazz, Kansas City. As the leader of the house band in a saloon called the Yellow Front, he met up and played with such esteemed producers of hot music as Count Basie, Hot Lips Page, Jimmy Rushing, Mary Lou Williams, Eddie Durham, Joe Turner, Bennie Moten and Walter Page. By 1933 he was in Chicago listening to and playing with Jimmy No-one and the great and now almost forgotten trumpeter, Jabbo Smith. From Chicago Sam went on to Detroit, where he worked until 1938. Then, after moving on to New York, he was hired by Decca Records to play for the famous blues singer and  pianist, Cow Cow Davenport. Sam remembered that he had won a piano "cutting contest" with Davenport back in 1928 and, so inspired, produced a series of stunning accompaniments to some of Cow Cow's most memorable records. From there on in, Sam became a sort of "house" pianist for Decca and for one or two of the other companies that were turning out rhythm and blues records. During that time he led disown group as well as accompanying singers like Trixie Smith, Georgia White, Cousin Joe, Joe Turner, Albania Jones and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Apart from his extensive recording activities, Sam led a band at New York's Cafe Society, worked with Sidney Bechet, Stuff Smith and Hot Lips Page, was a disc jockey on WPEN in Philadelphia and, before his most recent tour, was a leading participant in the International Jazz Festival in Nice, France, in 1948.

And the band...

Emmett Berry, whose mainstream trumpet style has been ringing through the world of jazz for more than twenty-five years, hails from Macon, Georgia, where he was born in 1916. His first major jobs were with both the Fletcher and Horace Henderson bands. After that came stints with Teddy Wilson, Raymond Scott, Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, John Kirby, Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing and most recently with Johnny Hodges.

Trombonsist George Stevenson is another Fletcher Henderson alumnus. George came to New York from Baltimore in 1925 to organize his own band, joined the famous Charlie Johnson band a Small's Paradise in Harlem, and then stayed on in New York to play with just about every important jazzman in the business.

Herbert Hall, like his famous brother Edmond, played clarinet, New Orleans style. From a family of well known Crescent City musicians, Herb never worked with larger bands, and for many years made his headquarters in New York, playing small combo jazz in many of the big town's famous night clubs.

On bass is the venerable George "Pops" Foster, another New Orleans veteran. Born in 1892, Pops began working on the riverboats in 1914 and played with King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Fate Marable and almost every other great name in traditional jazz that one can think of.

Drummer Freddie Moore has also "been around" for about as long as anyone cares to remember. A former member of King Oliver's band, Freddie is one of traditional jazz's most versatile showman-drummers. His singing and washboard playing have helped make him an international favorite. – Phil Shapler

That's A Plenty

Fontainebleau Boogie

New Shoes Blues

Tiger Rag

Jamie' In A Cellar

Royal Garden Blues

Shorty Needs A Mademoiselle

Boogie A-Bomb

My Lonesome Heart

When The Saints Go Marching Home